People may lack self-confidence and have serious hardships with raising their self-esteem due to a large set of body parts they are not satisfied with, so weight turns out to be not the key issue at all when it comes to appearance and its distance from the ideal. The collection of essays titled Body Outlaws wrote by Ophira Edut explores the deepest hidden prejudices and complexes people have concerning their bodies. There are many unexpected revelations on the subject of what parts of their bodies people feel problematic and what kinds of appearance dislikes await both men and women. Some examples can be reviewed as an unveiling truth about the true core of appearance troubles. The first essay, for example, explores the trouble of Mira Jacob feeling “betrayed” by her face that does not look the way she wants (the way her white-skinned ideals look) (Edut, 2003, p. 4).
The next one shows the vision of Susan Jane Gilman on the way Barbie toys should be done not to impose the ideals of slimness and beauty on the girls whose diversity and uniqueness are their treasure but not their verdict. She speaks of the alternative view on the beauty that cannot be put into narrow borders and limited to silicone girls that propagate diets and deprivations of everything for the sake of the false ideal. One of the toys she offers to launch into the market looks the following way:
“A Barbie with multiple love handles, double chin, a real, curvy belly, generous tits and ass, and voluminous thighs to show girls that voluptuousness is also beautiful” (Edut, 2003, p. 14).
This way the article Dinner Roll Barbie (and Other Dolls I’d Like to See) poses the problem of freedom of choice by young girls who may create their ideals corresponding to their style of life, their preferences, and behavior without being prosecuted or condemned for being different from the ideal. Gilman also claims that there should be Barbie dolls with many alternatives for application, like different sizes of breasts, length of legs, etc. to modify the ideal for every girl the way she wants and sees it, and not the way the consumerist market poses the question.
In the article, My Jewish Nose Lisa Jervis speaks about the nose problem becoming the key for her at the adolescent period. The reason for this is that she is a Jew and noses have always been particularly shaped; however, it started to be a problem only recently – not for her but her mother:
”My mother thought a nose job was a good idea. See, she hadn’t wanted one either. But when she was sixteen, her parents demanded that she get that honker “fixed,” and they didn’t take no for an answer. She insists that she’s been glad ever since” (Edut, 2003, p. 63).
An essay of Erin Aubry is highly impressive – the author speculates over her butt and the power it has, noting that “unlike hair and skin, the butt is stubborn—it can’t be hot combed or straightened or bleached into submission” (Edut, 2003, p. 22). By these words Aubry means that the body of the person is the inherent treasure that does not depend on the political climate in the country or any fashion flow; it is something that a person surely has and will have, being unable to modify its uniqueness to push it into the frames of the average. Following the idea of naturalness, Carolyn Mackler presents her alternative view on shaving; on listing all horrible feelings that every woman has removing hair on different parts of her body, she concludes: “Why has body hair become such a nemesis for women? It poses no health risks. It is not hygienic to remove; it is not cleansing to shave” (Edut, 2003, p. 55).
Weight problems are also addressed in Edut’s collection of essays – the work of Dyann Logwood-Young is very interesting from the point of view of traditional worshipping slimness. She explains that the black community has opposite views on beauty, so the American Dream about thinness on the verge of starvation loses its sense: “Usually, thinness is taken as a telltale sign of a sister who’s overworked, burdened, burning out — someone who’s not quite holding it all together” (Edut, 2003, p. 96). The same topic is raised in the essay of Kate Dillon who confesses that being a model she became the “victim to society’s body ideals” – she was urged to lose as much weight as hardly any reasonable human being would be able to, and still she did not achieve approval of her manager (Edut, 2003, p. 232). The work of Elisa Albert on her revolt in the Los Angeles city obsessed by Hollywood measures of beauty is also very expressive. She speaks about her experience in the following way:
“I look back now and pat myself on the back for what amounted to years of extended performance art, my body my tool for sociopolitical commentary, my every stomach roll a calculated fuck you to the beauty mafia and the culture that nursed it” (Edut, 2003, p. 250).
There are surely many more essays that will find their reader and will raise much thought in the reviewer; every work is expressive and personal from the point of view of the writer who stands to his or her opinion and wants to gain the right to choose in the society driven by prejudice and fake ideals. Ophira Edut has done a tremendous part of work gathering the essays and unifying them by one thought – ideals are created by every individual for him- or herself, and none should follow the socially established norms if the inner self does not wish that. Every personality is a universe with its boundaries, laws of existence, and rules. This is why following the commonly accepted conventions is likely to ruin the personality and create meaningless complexes.
Edit propagates reshaping ideas and making them more applicable for those who do not fit the etalons of beauty imposed by Hollywood measures and fashion creators. Her work is a significant contribution to the fight against inferiority complexes and prejudices concerning appearance. Due to Edut’s collection of stories of non-ideal women proud of their uniqueness those susceptible to dogmas created by the top stylists, models, and superstars have obtained an additional opportunity to fight their fears and reconsider their beauty under an alternative angle, which is a highly positive social tendency.
References
Edut, O. (2003). Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty & Body Image (2nd ed.). Seal Press.